So does 67K years ago not only push back filipino history but also all pacific island history? What are the earliest remains found so far? JSteen

Back on track. The 67kya finger bone will push back Pacific maritime excursions from Southeast Asia with the caveat that only one finger bone has been found so far. Additional finds, including worked lithics, should support a maritime crossing to Luzon by that time.

I have two comments for RS, (1) the bone found wasn't the middle finger, and (2) Luzon was still a sea crossing at a sea level drop of about 75 meters at 67kya. Extrapolated from the Purdue map entitled "Extent of Land Surfaces and Ice Mass During Last Glacial Era", see: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~rauhn/iceage.htm

I'm not saying HE could not 'sail'. I support the view that HE probably developed some way(s) of sailing (= navigating willfully from point A to point B; ≠ floating on the mercy of wind and currents) around 1 MYA.But I also hold that HE would avoid sailing if he could, because it always was an extremely hazardous enterprise. Of the kind you don't lightly expose your loved ones to. So on his migrations HE, in family groups, would walk or wade as long as he could. And he could, on the then extant SE Asian continental plate.

Looks like this Luzon Man was one of those on their long trek, east to the Pacific islands and south to Papua New Guinea and Oz! Along the northerly route! If so, wouldn't Luzon Man be some kind of a proto-Aboriginal?